Batman: The Doom of the Rising Sun

"I assure you I'm no footpad!"

The finale starts off with a fascinating, and rather good, cliffhangerresolution. Last episode we saw Batman bundled into coffin and said coffin fed to the crocs. This resolution isn't the first to resolve the cliffhanger by editing in some extra footage- but it really owns what it's doing, and I admire that. There's quite a lengthy sequence of Batman using Morse Code and Robin coming to his aid, revealing that it's not the Batman in the box but Wallace, one of Daka's anonymous and expendable henchmen.

I suppose it's a cheat, if you see re-editing as that. But I really admire the fact that it takes the episode six and a half minutes to get to the point where the coffin is fed to the crocs. For a movie serial cliffhanger resolution, this is positively avant-garde.

The rest is as one would expect, I suppose; Batman and Robin infiltrate Daka's hideout, there'sa fight, there's the obvious racial slur, Daka is fed to the crocs, the zombies are cured and Martin exonerated. But it's all very nicely done, and I love the scene where Captain Arnold finally meets his unofficial best officer. There's some nice comedy stuff with Alfred, too.

Overall... well, it's a movie serial. We know what we're getting. But this is rather better than most. It's just unfortunate that the blatact racism, even taking full account of historical context, is just so very far beyond the pale.

Batman: The Executioner Strikes

"Looks like a trap..."

"'Course it is. But we won't get caught in it."

Of course you won't, Bruce. Although I suspect you fell for it far too easily and there's something afoot. Were you really in that coffin that got fed to the alligators in their little pit at the end, you know, that pit of alligators that is getting suddenly emphasised in this penultimate episode, almost as though it may have a role to play in Dr Daka's fate in next episode's finale?

But I get ahead of myself. The opening cliffhanger, I have to say, was superb, and the resolution to the spike trap is pretty damn good. Linda actually does get zombified, and used as bait in a trap for Bruce Wayne who, of course, Daka and his hoodlums seem to know is Batman when the plot requires but not when it doesn't, such as when they see Robin in the back of the car but are thrown off the scent by the sight of Bruce Wayne. But let us not be churlish about these things.

Things are actiually pretty exciting at this point. No more random fights and set pieces... well, a few... asit seems that things are actually happening.

Batman: Eight Steps Down

 "Stop at the first police box you come to."

That line was, to put it mildly, unexpected for this serial made in 1943 and set, I believe, in Los Angeles (Gotham City? What's that then?) but, well, diddy-dum. Although said police box is just really a payphone-like contraption for Batman to ring up the police captain and scold him for being "not very clever!.

Anyway, our heroes naturally escape the latest of several burning buildings as cool-looking 1940s US fire engines congregate. But Linda Page has been kidnapped! She meets Daka... yeah, that racial slur happens, of course it does, but Linda is stoic, refusing to betray Bruce even if it means being zombified- does she actually fancy Bruce, whom she naturally sees as a lazy cowards, rather than wanting his money? She's actually rather admirable here, social attitudes aside, especially after seeing what was done to her Uncle Martin.

Daka, meanwhile, is no fool. On being told, yet again, by an overconfident underling that no one could have survived that fire, he gives us a wry "another Batman killed, eh?". And his plan to use Linda as bait make it clear that he's worked out that Bruce is Batman. It is, after all, rather obvious.

Incidentally, the new radium gun is nearly ready...

Batman and Robin are cool here, efficiently investigating the baddies' known haunts, finding secret passages and getting close to Daka's hideaway. Alas, they're caught, and we end with the most splendidly movie serial double cliffhanger ever. Will Batman, having fallen down a trap door into an unecessarily elaborate deathtrap, be crushed by the spikes? Will Linda be turned into another zombie? I'm loving this.

Batman: A Nipponese Trap

 "I got out at the last minute..."

Eleven episodes in, and I really must praise the music. The opening music is pretty good, and I love the "sting" when the title is shown. I also have to praise the attention to detail with the "ghost train" into Daka's lair, with glimpses of exhibits showing Imperial Japanese troops up to various nefarious things. I say "praise", of course, but perhaps it's fortunate that said displays are not clearly lit, as the chances of them doing a racism are quite high, I'd say.

We don't start well: Batman escapes from the car by jumping out of the car, unseen, at the last minute. Not only this, but Bruce disguises himself as "Chuck White" again to trick Marshall, in jail, into revealing the location of another safe house... and also escapes being crashed into by a lorry at, you guesses it, the last minute. The concluding fight is a bit rubbish, too, with some hoods defeating Batman and Robin too easily before the inevitable explosion.

Still, Daka has the radium and we have some actual plot, as he's about to start constructing a mysterious weapon. Could stuff actually be... happening?

Batman: Flying Spies

"A pity Marshall was killed in that mine disaster instead of you!"

Yes, the above quote is how Daka speaks to his main henchman in this episode. In fact, he's pretty rude, uncaring and horrible to literally all his minions. This is, toput it mildly, a very toxic working enviroment. I strongly advise all Daka's minions to speak to their union rep. Bullying, toxic behaviour... and the place is a health and safety nightmare, let me tell you.

Anyway... again, no more racism than the usual, which is nice, relatively speaking. We've been strung along for a while now with Daka's need for radium, so now, suddenly, a plane is coming to deliver it, just like that. We have a blatantly rubbish cliffhanger resolution. Linda is pretty upset with Bruce for standing her up. Oh, and Bruce is pretending to be a hood cxalled "Chuck White" again, as a ruse to discover Daka's hideout.

It's all pretty good, to be fair, considering. The cliffhanger is excellent, although one can't help but remember the rubbish resolution at the top of the episode.

Next time, though, can we expect some slight plot advancement? Or is it too soon...?

Batman: Poison Peril

 "Oh Bruce... you're impossible!"

The cliffhanger is soon resolved by, er, simply having the plane crash into the ground but with Batman and Robin both surviving. Ok then. This is how they're playing it.

The plot thread with the Japanese submarine and plane plans is abruptly and hliariously dropped at this point as we move towards a radium mine and prospector, one Ken Colton, introduced in some exposition as Linda visits. I can't for the life of me see why this working girl should be interested in the apparently flaky, lazy, unreliable Bruce Wayne... oh, yes. The money.

There's an obligatory seqyence in which a henchman suggests that Bruce and the Batman must be "one and the same". a phrase which only ever comes up in the context of superhero secret identities, but Daka says that "That simpering idiot could never be the Batman".

We then have some bugging of Bruce's front room, some exposition, and Daka now knows that Colton has a claim to a, er, radium mine, the most 1940s movie serial concept ever. So Alfred, ever the comic foil, is made to dress up as Colton as a decoy only for Batman and Robin to spiring into action when he starts to be roughed up. Hmmm... surely the baddies would realise that the only way they could have found out about their plan was from finding the bug, which makes their secret identities rather obvious.

Never mind. Nice explosive cliffhanger here...

Batman: The Living Corpse

 "Stop! Behind you! The Batman!"

This being a movie serial, with fifteen likely interminable episodes of set pieces and probable further racism, this instalment sees the plot, such as it is, suddenly changed without warning. Both Batman and Daka are given new missions.

For Batman, it's a letter from Uncle Sam, in invisible ink, sending him on a secret mission to protect a plane against dastardly agents of Imperial Japan. It's a nice little spy scene with a bit of comic relief for Alfred. But the minions of Tojo in Tokyo get their message to Dr Daka by more... unusual means. A coffin is delivered to a beach, with a corpse inside, dressed as a Japanese soldier. Said soldier is briefly brought to life in a scene literally ripping off James Whale's Frankenstein, and the revived corpse proceeds to deliver his verbal message and promptly snuff it again. Dialogue makes it clear that, being the oriental type, he's only too happy to die for the Emperor in place of, you know, just using invisible ink or many other methods...

Racism aside, and to be fair we've seen much worse in this serial, the episode ends with a nice little action set piece on a place, with our heroes engaging in fisticuffs as their plane is shot down by friendly fire. On and on we go...

Batman: Slaves of the Rising Sun

"You and all your Axis cronies... you're through!"

A lot happens in this episode between the two cliffhangers of the railway bridge and the van going off a cliff. One of Daka's hoods, having failred in his mission and turned agaimnst Daka, is foolish enough to stand right on top of the trap door and ends up fed to Daka's aligators in that spendid supervillain trope. Some sake is drunk. There's a fortune teller and a switcheroo, a car chase, Batman firing the radium gun.

But... well, again it's the staggering levels of racism, even taking full account of the context, that stands out here. I know we had one staggeringly racist line in the first episode, but this time we get "That's the kind of answer that fits the colour of your skin."

Yes. Really. That line is literally in this episode. Wow.

I'm lefdt wondering just how much more we'll see that's at this level. Jingoism, anti-Japanese sentiment, even a bit of mild xenophobia could be largely explained by the context. But this? Wow.

Batman: The Mark of the Zombies

 "I suggest that you adopt an attitude of fatal tresignation..."

This is the episode where, predictably, Linda's uncle gets zombified by Daka, in a suiably bonkers machine which reminds me of a pound shop version of the device from Bride of Frankenstein, a fairly recent film at this point. Daka is a properly moustache-twirling baddie and... yeah, even his henchmen are racist about him behind his back. I've learned, since last episode, that J. Carroll Naish was originally set to play the Joker, and you can kind of see with the costume and the hideout. Instead... oh dear. There's a danger of actually getting desensitised to the racism.

Awkwardly, though, this is actually pretty good for a movie serial.The cliffhanger resolution is actually ok. Daka's train robbery plan is cool, as is Bruce's plan to trap Daka with the newspsaper advert, which Daka sees through... only for the Batman to see through said, er, seeing through.

This is massively formulaic but, hey, it's a movie serial. So far, if it wasn't for the racism, I'd be quite impressed.

Batman: The Bat's Cave

 "Don't worry. They don't bite... unless I tell them to."

Thankfully, other than the actualmpresence and appearance of Dr. Daka, the racism isn't so foregrounded here, much as it is of course present. This continues, that rather large elephant in the room aside, to be a moderately superior movie serial. Yes, we're now moving into the plotless series of episodes and set pieces that charactyerise the genre, but there are nice little touches- Lewis Wilson's impressive performance as Brude Wayne, the cynicism of the police captain taking credit fot Batman's work, the nice little scene of Linda Page being gassed in a phone boogth.

It's fascinating seeing the early use of the "Bat's Cave", too- no gadgets, here: this is just a scary place full of bats aimed at scaring baddies. It's equally interesting seeing the first iteration of Alfred- yes, he knows that Bruce and Dick are Batman and Robin, but he's very much a figure of fun and the butt of the joke.

I hope to see more of this sort of thing, fun though the set pieces are. The cliffhanger is rather good, and in fact the production so far is rather good for a movie serial. But we've a long way to go...

Batman: The Electrical Brain

 "Listen, Daka, or whatever your name is! I owe allegiance to no country or order but my own! I'm an American, first and always, and no amount of torture conceived by your twisted oriental brain will make me change my mind!"

I last watched this over Christmas and New Year, 1990-91. Why not watch it again, now, for the firsttime since? The first screen appearance of Batman and a Robin for whom every day is a bad hair day. The first ever appearance, comics included, of Alfred and the Batcave, which is reveal to us from the very start in all ots awesome glory: a posh table, a chair or two, some bats flying about and some papier mache rocks. Bloody terrifying.

This is genuinely very good and engaging, though. Lewis Wilson is excellent as a Batman who, as Bruce Wayne, amusingly exaggerates his playboy persona for the benefit of his disapproving girlfriend, Linda Page, who- she being a woman and this being 1943- is a typist. There's a good explanation ("our special assignment from Uncle Sam") for Bruce not being in the armed forces. And the plot, involving radium in a safe, a radioactive ray gun, and sinister mind control, is excellent.

But- and yes, you knew this was coming: yep, the racism. You have to make allowances for the fact this is 1943, and this is Imperial Japan, merrily committing unspeakable war crimes as the movie serial is filmed. The yellowface is one thing- far from ok, but there's a context. But, I mean, we get the line "since a wise government rounded up the shifty-eyed J*ps", which is utterly mind boggling. Wow.

So yes, all very good... but the racism is really, really shocking, it can't be denied.

Batman: Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires

"Batman, how could you have opened a vault, to which you didn't even know the combnation, in three seconds flat?"

"With my Three Seconds Flat Bat Vault Combination Unscrambler, Commissioner."

At last we come to the final episode and... well, Minerva's first two millionaire victims are one William Dozier and "millionaire television producer"  Howie Horwitz, but that's just an in-joke for those in the know. There's otherwise no acknowledgement whatsoever that this is the final episode. Was there still some uncertainty when this was made about whether the show was going to be picked up for another season by NBC?

This is rather good, though, and a decent finale, although it doesn't hit the real heights. Zsa Zsa Gabor is charismatic, sexy and funny as one-off baddie Minerva, and the script has a bit of fun- one of Charles Hoffman's better efforts. The episode may be a little rushed, and Batgirl underused, but that's not so much the fault of the episode as the format for this season.

And... that's it. Batman is gone with neither a bang nor a whimper but a very ordinary episodes. I suppose that's how things were in 1968. But I have every intention of following certain aspects of the series' afterlife.

Fornow, though, I'll continue with Deadwood, and start something else...

Batman: The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra

"A Batfight seldom takes more than forty seconds, and they're already half an hour late."

Now this is more like it. It will never be one of my all-time  favourites, it's extremely cheap-looking, and all the ersatz "arch-criminals" are both underused to the point of undermining the characters and far too easily defeated, but the wit and the fun are back.

We first meet alchemist Dr Cassandra and her sidekick husband Cabala (both played by minor Hollywood stars) as they use invisibility to rob a bank that's "so conservative it pays no interest at all", and the silliness remains at that level- right to the point of a gun that turns our Terrific Trio into two-dimesnsional beings, aka cardboard cutouts. This is splendidly silly, and results in Batgirl being introduced to the Batcave.

The misuse of the arch-criminals is unnecessary and jarring, although I love that Gotham Prison has an "arch-criminals' wing". And the Batfight in total darkness is hilarious. After last episode's disaster, the series may well be regaining its mojo just before the last ever episode...

Batman: The Joker's Flying Saucer

"Holy known unknown flying objects!"

Oh dear. Only last episode I was rejoicing that, while this season is clearly under-budget and, on the whole, under par, it is nevertheless capable of reaching real heights. It is also, alas, capable of real lows, and this third-from-last episode is a real stinker. The sort of episode, in fact, which can tempt one to mention shark jumping. And this is the last episode of the Joker and, indeed, of any recurring villain.

Cesar Romero's Joker was never my favourite villain in Batman: Frank Gorshin's Riddler, Penguin and both Catwomans (Catwomen?) outshine him. And Romero, admittedly, is only my third favourite Joker. Fourth, if you count Conrad Veidt. But I liked him, and he deserves a much better swansong than this.

High concept episodes are fair enough, but this episode takes the theme of a silly flying saucer hoax and does absolutely nothing interesting with it. There's no wit or metatextual fun to speak of, just broad attempts at humour, although admittedly the Joker asuming Alfred must be a "mad scientist" is quite funny. Not even stock footage of the Batcopter can save this cheap, tawdry and funny episode.

Batman: I'll Be a Mummy's Uncle

"I'll build an indestructible empire that no one will be able to destruct!"

Every episode of this last run is the last gasp of something or someone that we will miss. This time it's King Tut making his last appearance, in a triumph of an episode crammed with magnificent one liners. Yes, Stanley Ralph Ross is on writing duties again.

This is twenty-four minutes of pure fun. It's nonsense, of course: Tut's plan is to acquire land next to Wayne Manor and then drill sideways in order to grab some priceless "Nilanium", accidentally hitting the Batcave after which farce ensues. The Aswan Dam, still under construction in 1968, gets a topical mention. And, although Bargirl is sidelined somewhat, this is a splendid bit of storytelling, filling the time available to perfection.

We even get a delightful scene in which Barbara, as Batgirl, rings Batman, as Bruce Wayne. The Dynamic Duo casually run a three minute and then a two minute mile. And, of course, Victor Buono is comic gold as ever. Tut will be missed. And we're so very close to the end now...

Batman: The Great Train Robbery

"You cheated! You know we ain't no good in a fair fight!"

Just to recap, before I discuss this splendid episode... I've seen the first season as a young adult, some parts more than once, albeit more than twenty years ago. But, although I've seen many, but by no means all, of the second and third season, we're looking at childhood memories, so watching certain episodes can lead to a completely unexpected wave of nostalgia. That's what happened tonight where Chief Standing Pat, the episode's totally non-problematic Native American character, spoke of a time "when little hand is on eleven, and big hand is on twelve." I remember this line from having seen it once, as a child of about ten, in about 1987. That's weird.

Stanley Ralph Ross has a knack for superb scripts, and this is his best. Shame (and the institution f the two parter) get the best of send-offs here, in a rare second episode that far exceeds the first. Not even the dodgy accent of Hermione Baddesley as (snigger) Frontier Fanny can take away from it.

We have a splendid deconstruction of Western tropes here, with a train robbery and ending with a shootout at High Noon and "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do". All the characters know full well what genre they're in. The wit of this script is a joy. And Cliff Robertson is superb; Shane hasn't really appeaed that much but there's a reason why the character is so fondly remembered. And, while the third season may (we can now see) perhaps be the least good overall, it can still hit real heights.

Batman: The Great Escape

"They've got Batgirl, and we've got Fanny."

There are two things which are probably worh mentioning as I start to blog this episode. The first is that, in this final run of episodes with their many last times, this two parter is both the final appearance of Shame and, well, the last two parter.The other thing, no less importantly, is that Hermione Baddesley- the maid from Mary Poppins- is playing a character called (titter) Frontier Fanny.

This is a hilarious episode for many reasons, not least Shame's sidekicks: a Native American who communicates solely in shorthand smoke signals and a Mexican bandit with a cut glass RP accent, neither of which you would see today, but this kind of playfulness with stereotypes is not, I don't think, mean-spirited.

There's more, though, from the latest variation on the ever entertaining "Commissioner rings the Batphone with Bruce Wayne present" trope to Batman reading the note from Shame in Shame's own vernacular, reminding us that Adam West is a terrific comic actor. I've peraps been remiss, too, in my praise for the penmanship of Stanley Ralph Ross.

Still no cliffhanger, though, and this was the last chance...

Batman: Penguin's Clean Sweep

"Don't you see? That's what happens, Pengy-poo, when you send a fly out to do a man's job."

We're getting close to the end now (only six more short episodes after this one- how on Earth did we get here so fast?), so we're going to be saying goodbye to all the villains, one by one. We've already waved adieu to the Riddler. I didn't realise at the time, but we've already bidded to Catwoman after but three short episodes for Eartha Kitt.

This time it's a true milestone: the last appearance of the unsurpassable Burgess Meredith as the Penguin. Let there be much mourning. With the one exception of Frank Gorshin, who has appeared but onceas the Riddler sinceutterly  owning the first season, his quacking, conniving baddie is unquestionably the finest villain to grace this programme. And, while I won’t pretend this episode is amongst his best- it’s no Hizonner the Penguin- it’s a splendidly entertaining little episode and a fine send off.

The plot is wonderfully silly- contaminating banknotes with "Lygerian Sleeping Sickness" so no one will want money and Penguin can literally vacuum it from the street. The solution is silly, too- alerting the world that Gotham's money is unclean so all Penguin's cash is worthless. This clever conceit of Batman's is foolproof because, as we all know, there's no such thing as money laundering. Right? On a similar note, let us also gloss over the conflation of vaccines and antidotes. This is 1968; they're not living through a plague like we are here in 2020. We can't expect the same level of obsession.

Next week looks interesting, with Shane being back, and one (titter) Frontier Fanny...

Batman: Louie’s Lethal Lilac Time

“Tell me something, Batgirl. How did you get out of that cat?”

“With my Batgirl vat-opener.”

Louie the Lilac gets a second appearance, which is surprising- I assume both episodes were filmed back to back? He’s an odd one; a relatively ho-hum character that is elevated by a nicely menacing little turn from Milton Berle.

They may be running out of ideas already- after trying to corner the flower market, he’s now doing the same with perfume. But the episode nevertheless manages to be funny and entertaining- I love how Louie needs a whole menagerie of animals kidnapped from the zoo, all of which are just off camera whenever they are nearby. We also get parallel pieces of farcical fun as Barbara Gordon nearly seems the Batphone flashing, while her own secret passage in her flat is nearly found by a random workman sent by neighbours complaining about the noise of the revolving wall.

The episode revolves around the conceit if Bruce and Dick being captured and the Caped Crusaders therefore being unavailable, until of course they get to use their special pills which contain full Bat costumes. This is wonderfully bonkers. Much like the episode itself. This third season, I think I can say by now, is looking a little tired. But it’s still got it a surprising amount of the time.

Batman: The Joke’s on Catwoman

“That’s the first time I ever

It’s our first episode of 1968- a less idealistic and more cynical year than ‘67, with rioting and body bags from Vietnam starting to edge out peace and love. And, right on cue, we have a cynical episode on corrupt justice as our heroes capture Catwoman and Joker halfway through and we spend the rest of the episode with a trial in front of a corrupt jury.

It is, of course, absurd to see Batman- not a lawyer- handling the prosecution, but this is Batman. The courtroom antics of Lucky Pierre are delightfully entertaining, and Batman even states at the end that he would have done well in politics. And, of course, on Pierre’s desk in his first scene is a prominent photo of Richard Nixon. A newer, more cynical and conservative age is coming. And perhaps that age will have no place for high camp fun.

And high camp fun aplenty there is here, much as the Joker is again playing second fiddle to Catwoman. There’s more fun flirting between Batgirl and the Caped Crusaders, and a hilariously quick usage of a French dictionary- although a genuine 18th century treasure map certainly wouldn’t be in metres...

Again we get some delightfully eccentric characters, from a pair of lighthouse keepers to a judge who joins in the final fight. This episode, and this two parter, is utterly bonkers. And wonderful.